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Letter of Transmittal

November 12, 2020

Prof. Shweta Kushal

IIM Indore

Subject: Evaluation of Case— “​Your Star Salesperson Lied. Should He Get a Second Chance?​”

Dear Professor,

As per instructions received, we submit herewith an analysis of the case titled: “Your Star
Salesperson Lied. Should He Get a Second Chance?”. The following pages contain, in a report
layout, a detailed examination of the problem and involve discussion, followed by insights of
group members along with implications of the organization’s zero-tolerance policy.

We shall be willing to have a discussion with you, at your convenience, in case you have any
suggestions regarding the same.

Regards,
Members of Group 2 | Section B
Batch of 2022

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Executive Summary

Novacib is a company that upholds a zero-tolerance policy for ethical violations. Its
management, however, is faced with a dilemma when their star salesman, Mr. Uday Madhav has
been found to falsify information in his report, altering the dates of meetings to achieve his daily
sales target. It was known that his new-born baby was sick; he, therefore, was struggling to have
a work-life balance. The management team is torn between whether to punish him and set an
example or to let it slide keeping in mind his outstanding performance at the company in the past
several years. All the alternatives had their own cost. However, the most ethical and humane
approach would be to send a strong warning while sparing his job, keeping in mind his hard
work and difficulties in his personal life.

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 Table of Contents

Letter of Transmittal.....…………………………………………………………………………(2)

Executive Summary..…………………………………………………….……………………...(3)

The 8-Step Process:

Situation Analysis………………………………….….………………………………….…….(5)

Problem Statement……………………………………………………………………….….…(6)

Options or alternatives……………………………………….………………………..……..(6)

Criteria …………………………....…………………………………………………..….……(7)

Evaluation of Options……………………………………………………..……….………… (8)

Recommendations…………………………………………………………….…...…………. (9)

Action Plan and Implementation………………………………………………..….….......(9)

Contingency Plan………………………………………………………………….…..…….(10)

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Situation Analysis

Novacib is a pharmaceutical marketing company whose mission statement is ‘​Health with

integrity’. ​The CEO, Siddhant Kapoor, has a zero-tolerance policy on ethical issues, and the
organization prides itself on its differentiation with other players on the basis of its rightful focus.

Novacib’s ‘Star Salesman’, Uday Madhav, who routinely exceeds his sales target by more than
10% and has also been awarded top commission prize three times in the past five years, have
falsified some information on his weekly reports regarding his visits to concerned doctors. This
falsification was discovered by the sales manager Shraddha, who keeps Uday in her high regard.
Siddhant is made aware of the whole situation by the sales manager. Shraddha, Bhavna, and
Siddhant are having a conference call to discuss the whole situation. Bhavna, HR of Novacib
advises firing Uday as she believes that this step would align with the company’s mission
statement while Shraddha argues otherwise, citing examples of his value as an employee, and
Siddhant remains undecided.

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Problem Statement

Mr. Uday Madhav, under the pressure of familial and professional responsibilities, has forged
information in his report, thus leaving the organization in a dilemma of whether to uphold its
ethical reputation and punish Uday or to compromise on the principles considering his present
situation and stellar performance.

Options or Alternatives

The management can adopt different possible ways to deal with this situation.
● Fire Uday: Novacib Labs is known to uphold its mission statement. The company and
management take ethical issues very seriously. Hence, the first alternative would be to
fire Uday.

● Issue a warning: ​Issuing the warning would bring this issue in the light and make Uday
and the rest of the salespersons aware that the management can conduct surprise checks
at any moment and then can penalize the employees suitably.

● Suspend him and ask for a formal apology: ​The management should suspend
him(without pay) for a period of 15 days and tell him to formally apologize for his
mistakes and assure the management that such kind of behavior won’t be repeated in the
future.

Criteria

- Past performance based​: Uday has been continuously a star performer; the decision can
be taken as not a reflection of the current incident rather the record over the years such as
bringing revenue of over $250,000 a year.
- Business interest​: The decision could be based on the business interest of Novacib; it’s
also known that firing or retaining Uday would have an impact on the current and future
teams.

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 - Competitors and industry​: As Uday could easily join any of the competitors in the
industry and the kind of business that Uday brings, it would increase the competition for
Novacib in the coming times.
- Personal connect​: Since doctors recognize a company through the salesperson they
interact with, and thus, it would be difficult for Novacib to establish the personal connect
that Uday has.
- Work Culture:​ Novacib could get ahead with setting an example of work culture and
ethics by firing Uday.

Evaluation of Alternatives

On the basis of the criteria mentioned above,

● Fire Uday: Even though it is a very harsh decision, given the fact that Uday is the star
performer. However, this decision would serve as an example for other employees.

● Issue a warning: ​Since Uday is the ‘Star Performer’ and brings around $250,000 in
business, issuing him a warning could be one of the options. This is a lenient approach
and there is no certainty that it would yield the required results but it would surely
reprimand Uday for his unethical behavior.

● Suspend him and ask for a formal apology: ​Suspending Uday(without pay) would
teach him a lesson but this approach isn’t too hard on him. This approach has a greater
chance of having a positive impact on Uday and the other salespersons

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Recommendations

After analyzing all the pros and cons associated with all the options listed above, we as a group
came to the consensus that Uday should not be fired. Instead, he should be given a strong
warning and be made aware that if any such thing happens in the future, he may face severe
consequences which includes getting fired. Besides this, we may provide him with the option of
taking a leave of absence for the next one or two weeks to take care of his child. This will help
him to get some time to be with his child and also self reflect on his actions.

Action Plan and Implementation

• We tend to focus more on the person who has done the mistake but it’s important to push
focus from the person to the issue and find reasons why Uday had to take such steps knowing the
consequences, and then come up with changes in the working environment to avoid such
situations in the future

• Though people are aware of the consequences of an ethical breach it’s important to
update it and make changes to keep up with change in the working environment. In this case
issuing a code of conduct with strict guidelines would ensure other people that these ethical
breaches are taken seriously.

• As suggested that Uday should be suspended for some days for forgery, it should come
across as a strict warning. Therefore, an official communication (an email) should be sent out to
all the employees explaining that they can always contact the HR or the team lead for such
unpredicted circumstances and ask for help.

• Uday will be suspended for 15 days with a 50% pay cut including no extra sales income
to ensure a final warning this will set up an example for all the employees

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Contingency Plan

Since Uday has been kept in the company, a contingency plan could be to tag a sales associate
with Uday for a period of 6 months. By doing this, the associate would gain exposure as well as
contacts of all the doctors that Uday is in touch with. Moreover, s/he would get first-hand
experience in the working style of Uday and could utilize the tricks and strategies to boost the
targets as all the strategies do not work with every doctor everywhere. This would also keep a
check on Uday and Novacib would be having an easy replacement without a stark drop in sales.
After a period of six months, the company could easily decide on keeping or firing him as there
will not be high stakes to lose as in the current scenario.